1. Field of the Invention
The field of invention relates to Voice over Internet Protocol (“VoIP”) security. In particular, the field of invention relates to verifying caller ID authenticity in VoIP communication.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the advent of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), capabilities ubiquitous to legacy public switched telephone networks (PSTN) systems are being made commonly available for VoIP deployments. Caller ID is one of those capabilities now common in VoIP deployments. Unfortunately, the ability to spoof the contents of a caller ID and or a callers phone number in the display is easy to accomplish in a VoIP initiated phone call. In particular, VoIP makes it easy for fraudulent callers to insert an identifying name different from the actual identity of the fraudulent caller.
Fraudulent credentials in a caller ID description make “phishing” techniques appear more credible leading to potential exposure of secure information. The situation has become so pervasive that caller ID authenticity is readily viewed as worthless amongst the IP telephony community. Indeed, VoIP industry leaders are beginning to acknowledge that the anonymity of the internet and audio medium of telephony could make SPIT (Spam over Internet Telephony) a bigger problem for consumers than SPAM is today. There is a growing need for a VoIP solution that verifies a caller id is authentic to thwart phishing scams and SPIT campaigns which could severely limit the adoption of VoIP technology.